Fantastic Futures & Jason Munshi-South
THROUGH BODY, THROUGH EARTH, THROUGH SPEECH (2013)
In this project, Fantastic Futures and Munshi-South have been in residence at Queens Flushing Meadows‐Corona Park and Willets Point over the summer to explore the history and current social meaning of the park. This site of both the 1939 and 1964-65 World’s Fair as well as the temporary site of the U.N., is currently undergoing a contested series of development supported by Mayor Bloomberg of a mall and tennis stadium that evoke questions around diversity, visions of the future, and entitlement of space. Munshi-South and Fantastic Futures use a cross-pollination of artistic practice and scientific method to begin engaging the local community into a conversation around personal and family histories of the park and their visions of the park’s future.

Fantastic Futures is a team of students, artists, doctors, and future leaders from Iraq and the United States. For their recently completed Rhizome Commission, Fantastic Futures created a free and open online sound archive that examines concepts of time through the recording, collaging, and sharing of sounds between these two countries. They have been supported by Rhizome, The New Museum, CulturePush, and iLAND. For more information about their iLAB residency, visit ilandart.org.

Jason Munshi-South is an evolutionary biologist whose work examines the behavioral, ecological, and evolutionary impacts of large-scale human disturbance on wild vertebrate populations. He is Associate Professor in the Louis Calder Center & Department of Biological Sciences at Fordham University and his work is available to the public at nycevolution.org.